ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the rise and fall of a phenomenon – the radical educational press of the 1970s – and to situate some examples of that phenomenon in relation to each other and to notions of progressive education. The radical educational press was one of the by-products of that period of optimism and exploitation of contradictions within the education system was one of its aims. It represented a flowering of theoretical and practical initiatives mounted by socialist teachers working in the classroom, writing from a variety of ideological positions, but sharing a critique of the status quo in education which had not been articulated to such a degree since the 1920s and Teachers Labour League. After decades of relative quiescence the teaching profession, through the teaching unions, had begun to engage in direct confrontation with employers and government. Within the National Union of Teachers the splinter group of Rank and File was a rallying point for many activists and radicals.
